The Need for Mentoring in the Bay Area
Reasons of Poverty — continued

 

There are enormous stretches of concentrated poverty in the Bay Area. In the five county area, there are 27 census tracts (each representing about 4,000 people) where the median household income is below $20,000: the families in these areas – over 100,000 people - are living in highly concentrated poverty. ⁵

Smaller neighborhoods of concentrated poverty also exist within otherwise affluent census tracks. In all, 72 Bay Area neighborhoods experience concentrated poverty: the majority of those neighborhoods are clustered around the cities of Richmond, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco. ⁶

 

These areas are toxic.

Social problems like high unemployment, crime, adolescent delinquency, teenage childbearing, and poor developmental outcomes for children and adolescents, are rampant.

Youth violence is a prime example. The more aggression children are exposed to, the more violent they are likely to be – and a 2004 study determined that low-income children are exposed to significantly higher levels of violence. Relative to middle-class two-to-four year olds, impoverished two-to-four year olds interact with aggressive peers 40% more often in their neighborhoods, 25% more often in child-care settings, and have 70% more contacts with friends who are aggressive. ⁷

The problem isn’t that a family is poor – it’s that it’s surrounded by poverty. As a 2003 study of educational outcomes determined: “(L)iving in a low income neighborhood has a greater effect on inequality in test scores than coming from a low income family.” ⁸

 

Social Breakdown

One reason is the breakdown of social systems.  As social systems break down, people dependent on those systems lose access to the skills and opportunities they need to be successful in the world. 

In an area with poor schools, a child who doesn’t have the social capital to access educated adults on their own won’t learn much.  The educated adults living in the area simply can not meet demand. 

 

Unemployment

Unemployment shows the same dynamic.  As more adults in a concentrated area are unemployed, access to the basic set of “employment oriented” social skills vanishes.  Skills like finding jobs to apply for, properly filling out applications, dressing for work, the importance of punctuality, are modeled by few adults – and thus accessible to very few children.  If a child lives in an area of mass unemployment and lacks the social capital to connect with successful adults or helpful institutions, they are at a significant disadvantage in a job search

Crime, teenage parenting, and other examples of social malaise all follow similar dynamics.  Someone has to teach you how to read fluently.  Someone has to explain what it takes to hold down a job.  Someone has to write a competent letter of reference.  Someone has to convince you that staying out of jail today will lead to a better tomorrow.   Someone has to demonstrate how you do that. 

 

For hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents, someone is hard to find.

 

 

 

 

1. Introduction
2. The Epidemic
3. Reasons of Poverty
4. Reasons of Poverty continued
5. Social Disconnect
6. Social Disconnect continued
7. Social Disconnect continued
8. Mentoring is the Answer
9. Mentoring is the Answer continued
10. BBBSBA Works on the Bottom Line
11. Final Thoughts